The performance of managed lists that reside in external memory (e.g., of a network device, such as a router) are designed to handle worst-case performance requirements. When occasional bursts of increased demand on the list occur, the performance of the list is required to meet that demand. Even if this scenario is an uncommon event, the design of the list must handle those events, regardless of the cost of doing so. The cost is typically seen as either providing a more expensive memory solution (i.e., provide greater bandwidth) or reserving bandwidth to that memory system for contingency purposes, where that bandwidth would otherwise have been allocated to a different function.